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- Doug Marrone is a rookie NFL head coach. He's also a sharp guy with an eye for talent.

Marrone has spent the past month scouring the list of available veteran quarterbacks and researching this year's crop of rookies, because he, like every other coach in the league, understands that franchises are built from the quarterback out.

And what Marrone saw was that there was no one out there -- in free agency or in the draft -- with the potential to help the Bills next season more than Ryan Fitzpatrick.

I understand this isn't news many Bills fans want to hear. Some probably would have had Marrone bring in Michael Vick or draft Geno Smith and create a read-option attack that would play to the team's depth at running back.

But that's obviously not Marrone's vision.

It's possible Marrone plans to draft his former quarterback at Syracuse, Ryan Nassib, and break him in slowly behind Fitzpatrick or Tarvaris Jackson, re-signed last week to compete for the job.

But for this season at least, it appears the offense still belongs to Fitzpatrick. And Bills fans who agreed with most observers around the league that Marrone was a great choice to return the franchise to playoff contention should trust their man on this decision.

- The NFL isn't saying much about the new aptitude test it plans to introduce at this year's scouting combine, which opens Saturday.

The test will complement, not replace, the Wonderlic, which has been controversial since its inception in the 1970s as the brainchild of former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.

In reality, the Wonderlic is simply one tool among dozens used to evaluate incoming talent. And history suggests it's limited as a measure of NFL success.

The typical player scores 21 out of a possible 50 points on the Wonderlic, while the average quarterback score is 24.

NFL coaches and personnel people -- the smart ones, at least -- keep those numbers in perspective.

After all, Fizpatrick scored a 48 on the Wonderlic, and Dan Marino famously scored a 16.

One is in the Hall of Fame. The other is clinging to his job on a bad team.

So if you want to know who the best players are at this weekend's combine, pay attention to the drills taking place on the field, not the tests going on in classrooms.

- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly earned more than $29 million in 2012.

For that kind of money you'd think Goodell could humor us by suiting up just once for an Oklahoma drill against James Harrison.